Dillon & Bright Win Nippon Superpipe

The rising sun broke through once again as bluebird skies graced the last day of the SuperPipe finals at the Nissan X-Trail Nippon Open. Keir Dillon took home $15,000 and first place for the men’s and Torah Bright repeated her 2007 win in the women’s competition.

The Japanese crowds have a reputation for coming out in full force and Sunday’s SuperPipe finals proved no different. Torah Bright defended her title with her third run that was comprised of a frontside 540, Mctwist Terje style, tailgrab to fakie, Cab 720 nose grab, to a backside alleyoop. Gretchen Bleiler put up a tough fight for second place with a dynamic run consisting of a crippler, method, frontside 9 melon, backside 540, frontside 720 lien air. Switzerland’s Manuela Laura Pesko placed third with a backside 540 mute, frontside 7 lien, Cab mute 360, frontside air to backside 7 mute.

Going huge has been the name of the game this week and the riders were throwing it down in the men’s final. In a field that was dominated by Japanese riders, it was USA’s Keir Dillon that came out on top with consistent amplitude in his run that included a KD roll 900, crippler tailgrab, backside inverted 540, frontside inverted 9 melon, method, alleyoop McTwist 720. Japan’s Kazuhiro Kokubo went two for two with another second place finish in the SuperPipe. Kazu boosted a huge Michaelchuck nose grab, frontside 1080 tail grab, Cab 7 into a frontside 7 followed by a Cab 9 melon. Rounding out the podium was Finland’s Janne Korpi with a Cab 1080 tailgrab into a frontside 10 melon, frontside 7, Cab 9, indy backside 540 into a backside alleyoopchuck.

Today’s competition saw some changes in the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Championship as Torah’s SuperPipe win moved her into first place. Kazu’s two second place finishes this week put him into the lead for the men in the Burton Global Open Series. Jenny Jones is currently leading the women’s BGOS, after winning the Parkstyle event on Friday. The BGOS will award $100,000 to the top male and female competitors at the 26th Annual US Open Snowboarding Championships, taking place from March 17-23 at Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont.